This Slide of Paradise
A renegade scientist is using his own private island to develop human hybrids — humans mixed with animal DNA. He’s attempting to create a docile set of slaves when Rickman and the Sliders crash his party. Lacking any human specimens, Rickman takes to feeding on the hybrids and his appearance begins to resemble theirs. He takes over as leader of the group and sets his fellow creatures out to capture the Sliders. Rembrandt escapes and pleads with the scientist to arm him with guns, but there’s a condition. Rembrandt must give him his DNA to make more hybrids. After seeing how he treats his slaves, Rembrandt cannot go along with it. Fortunately, Rickman’s become unstable and foolishly allows the others to escape with both timers. Rembrandt goes back for one of the hybrids he befriended, but she does not want to leave. The three original Sliders are set to go home when Rickman attacks. Unwillingly to leave Maggie to fend for herself, Quinn sends the others home and stays behind. Rickman kills himself trying to pursue Wade and Rembrandt, and Quinn and Maggie track the wormhole — only the tracker fails. They end up in a world of the future, lost once again.
Worlds Visited
 | Hybrid WorldGeological instability has turned California into a series of tropical island paradises — all up for sale to the highest bidder. |
 | Future WorldLarge, futuristic buildings dot the landscape of San Francisco, and huge hovercraft fly through the night sky. |
Details
- Ceres says that it was a beast named Kolain who first saw our Sliders come through the wormhole.
- Vargas says that he’s named his genetic creations “Huminals — a new species of life. Bred to be docile beyond reason.”
Character Information
- Maggie once had a sexual relationship with Rickman, though she says it was the “biggest mistake I ever made.”
Notable Quotes
- “You didn’t know the Professor that well.” — Quinn to Maggie, who says that she’s never heard a man snarl as viciously as the animal that was chasing them.
- “Open up! We have an injured … ” — Quinn, who looks back to Allisandra at the compound gate, wondering just what to call her.
- “Trust us, we’re not even registered to vote around here.” — Wade, when asked if the Sliders were government agents.
- “Get your stinkin’ paw off me.” — Maggie to Rickman, echoing Charlton Heston in “Planet of the Apes.”
Nitpicks/Errors
After Quinn uses the three darts and before the Sliders get trapped in the net, a scene of a Huminal descending from a tree is reused from earlier in the episode.- The most obvious nitpick about this episode is the final scene in which Quinn and Maggie land in a futuristic version of San Francisco. I say futuristic because, knowing the rules of sliding, set down firmly during the first season, the Sliders do not and can not time travel. The term ‘futuristic’ is used because it has the characteristics of a city of the future but, again according to the rules, is not. However this doesn’t stop Quinn, the scientist himself, from concluding that he and Maggie have gone into the future.
History Lesson
Hybrid World has a slightly different topology than Earth Prime. Whether tectonic stress finally took it’s toll or the Ring of Fire busted up the California land mass millions of years ago, the end result is that California has broken up — and a chain of islands has taken its place.
The U.S. government has allowed people to purchase these islands, which is exactly what Doctor Vargas did when he purchased an old sugar plantation and converted it into a laboratory five years ago. While it’s assumed that these islands are under federal control, there really is no one policing what happens on the islands.
Vargas created a human-animal hybrid species on his island. Most are more animal than man; however, some have displayed intelligence and speech capacity. Those who can speak refer to the mainlaid and “the land that lives under the horizon” and are not permitted to visit it.
The Inside Slide
“This Slide of Paradise” wasn’t meant to be a cliffhanger — the original scripted ending had Rickman falling to his death with his timer in hand, and the Sliders dejectedly entering another wormhole knowing their chance home was dashed on the rocks below. So what happened?
The Dimension of Continuity reports that while FOX was waffling on its decision to renew, it asked production to put in a cliffhanger leaving just Jerry O’Connell and Kari Wuhrer, allowing them to create a 13-episode order for the next season that would rotate on Friday nights with John Corbett’sThe Visitor and a third unnamed series. The proposal? A view of the multiverse through the “eyes of love.”
When the Sci-Fi Channel expressed interest in taking over the reins of the series, however, this idea was dropped.
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Of her ocean dip at the beginning of the episode, Sabrina says: “They made us go out into the ocean in Northern California. The water was freezing, there was a horrible undercurrent, and I almost drowned! I felt very daring.”
Guest Stars
Michael York as Dr. Vargas- Melinda Clarke as Alisandra
- Neil Dickson1 as Col. Angus Rickman
- Deron Michael McBee2 as Ceres
- Marc Riffon as Daniel
Co-Starring
- Sam Gifaldi as Michael
- Neil Dickson plays Angus Rickman in The Other Slide of Darkness, Stoker and Dinoslide.
- Deron McBee is a former American Gladiator.